December 10, 2024
tar-command

File Compression with ‘tar’ command

Common Options

-c –create Create a new archive.
-x –extract Extract files from an archive.
-t –list List the contents of an archive.
-f –file=ARCHIVE Use archive file or dir ARCHIVE.
-v –verbose Verbosely list files processed.

Compression Options –

-a –auto-compress Use archive suffix to determine the
compression program.
-j –bzip2 Filter the archive through bzip2.
-J –xz –lzma Filter the archive through xz.
-z –gzip Filter the archive through gzip.

How to use Whatsapp and what its History

How to use Whatsapp and what its History

Compress a folder

This creates a simple archive of a folder :

tar -cf ./my-archive.tar ./my-folder/

Verbose output shows which files and directories are added to the archive, use the -v option:

tar -cvf ./my-archive.tar ./my-folder/

For archiving a folder compressed ‘gzip’, you have to use the -z option :

tar -czf ./my-archive.tar.gz ./my-folder/

You can instead compress the archive with ‘bzip2’, by using the -j option:

tar -cjf ./my-archive.tar.bz2 ./my-folder/

Or compress with ‘xz’, by using the -J option:

tar -cJf ./my-archive.tar.xz ./my-folder/

Extract a folder from an archive

There is an example for extract a folder from an archive in the current location :

tar -xf archive-name.tar

If you want to extract a folder from an archive to a specific destination :

tar -xf archive-name.tar -C ./directory/destination

List contents of an archive

List the contents of an archive file without extracting it:

 tar -tf archive.tar.gz
 Folder-In-Archive/
 Folder-In-Archive/file1
 Folder-In-Archive/Another-Folder/
 Folder-In-Archive/Another-Folder/file2

List archive content

There is an example of listing content :

tar -tvf archive.tar

The option -t is used for the listing. For listing the content of a tar.gz archive, you have to use the -z option anymore :

tar -tzvf archive.tar.gz

Compress and exclude one or multiple folders

If you want to extract a folder, but you want to exclude one or several folders during the extraction, you can use the –exclude option.

tar -cf archive.tar ./my-folder/ --exclude="my-folder/sub1" --exclude="my-folder/sub3"

With this folder tree :

my-folder/
  sub1/
  sub2/
  sub3/

The result will be :

./archive.tar
  my-folder/
  sub2/

Strip leading components

To strip any number of leading components, use the –strip-components option:

--strip-components=NUMBER
  strip NUMBER leading components from file names on extraction

For example to strip the leading folder, use:

tar -xf --strip-components=1 archive-name.tar

Vedant Kumar

Currently I'm working as an Implementation Engineer, Started my career as an System Administrator - Linux. Additionally loves to explore new technologies and research about new open-source software that ease the development cycle.

View all posts by Vedant Kumar →

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

close

Ad Blocker Detected!

VEDANT EXPLAINS
We've noticed that you are using an ad blocker. Advertising helps fund our server cost and keep it truly independent. It helps to build our content creator team. So please disable your ad blocker, and help us to keep providing you with free- great content - for free. Thank you for your support.

Refresh